How The College World Series Teams Were Built

OMAHA, Neb.—If you’re a university based in Florida or Texas, it’s going to be a little bit easier to succeed with a homegrown team than it will in Oregon, Mississippi or Arkansas.

That’s not all that surprising, but Florida, Texas and Texas Tech are the teams that rely the most on their home states for talent of the eight College World Series teams. Of the 33 Gators on the postseason roster, 30 (91 percent) come from the state of Florida. Similarly, the Longhorns have 28 Texans among the 35 players on their postseason roster (80 percent) and the Red Raiders have 27 Texans among their 35 players (77 percent).

At the other end of the spectrum, only 8 of the 27 players on the Razorbacks roster (30 percent) are from Arkansas. Mississippi State (30 percent) and Oregon State (32 percent) also have to look beyond their state borders.

Baseball America’s look at how the College World Series teams were build also found a pretty significant variance in how much they depend on transfers. Arkansas, Mississippi State and Oregon State had three or fewer junior college transfers. Mississippi State and Texas each had nine JUCO players on their rosters and the Bulldogs had a pair of Division I transfers as well.